Baroness Taylor of Bolton: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Des Browne) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	Following a review of published operational casualty data to align current and historical methods of statistical recording, the number of casualties categorised as seriously injured (SI) (excluding natural cause) on Operation Herrick for 2006 has increased by one from 12 to 13. The number of Operation Telic casualties categorised as SI (excluding natural cause) for 2006 has increased by two from 19 to 21. There have been no changes to the number of very seriously injured (VSI) casualties in either operation. These changes bring the total number of SI casualties (excluding natural cause) for Op Herrick to 57 and Op Telic to 144 up to 31 December 2007.
	The statistics on casualty severity which are published on the MoD internet site exclude those individuals whose condition was recorded as due to a natural cause. In a very small number of cases, however, it is not possible to confirm whether individuals are suffering from injury or disease. When casualty reporting on the MoD internet site was first established in early 2006, cases where there was uncertainty over the cause were excluded from the published statistics. However, during an exercise last year to validate and publish retrospective data for the period 2001 to 2005 for the first time, it was decided that such cases, where there is uncertainty over the cause, should be included. This ensures that all those who have suffered an injury are reported. To ensure consistency of the statistical approach, we have now added such cases into the published statistics for January 2006 onwards.
	These revised statistics supersede information previously released by the department into the public domain.
	The revised data have now been published on the MoD website at
	http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInlraqBritish Casualties.htm and
	http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInAfghanistan BritishCasualties.htm.

Baroness Andrews: My honourable friend the Minister for Local Government (John Healey) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	On 7 January 2008, the department published a statement on its website about the local authority business growth incentives scheme: (www.local. communities.gov.uk/finance/labgi/statemtyr3pay.pdf).
	This indicated that, following further consideration of the new legal challenges that have been made against the current LABGI scheme and the inherent uncertainty this causes to the remaining LABGI pot, the Government intended to reconsider all aspects of the approach used to distribute resources available for year 3 of the LABGI scheme.
	Alongside our reconsideration of the year 3 scheme, the Government have reconsidered the payments for years 1 and 2 of LABGI, which were made on the basis of a number of Valuation Office Agency rateable value "change codes". We have taken the view that there are a number of Valuation Office Agency change codes that have not previously been used in LABGI calculations, which could contain elements of business growth. In light of this, and to avoid the additional delay and uncertainty caused by further legal challenge, the Government propose to reward authorities on the basis of a wider set of codes than has so far been the case for years 1 and 2. I will set out the details shortly.
	The Government are still finalising their analysis of options for allocating the resources available for year 3 of the scheme. We continue to be convinced of the value of providing incentives to encourage business growth, a view echoed by the great majority of the responses to our recent issues paper on the reform of the LABGI scheme (Building Better Incentives for Local Economic Growth: Reforms to the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives Scheme). We also remain determined to try to achieve this policy aim for LABGI. However, the inclination of a small number of authorities to pursue legal action has created greater complexity, uncertainty and delay. Given this, it will be necessary to retain a portion of the year 3 funding as a contingency in this final year of the current scheme. I will make an announcement on year 3 methodology and the size of the contingency retained as soon as possible.